3 Die as Israelis Bomb Guerrilla Base in Lebanon

Israeli aircraft attacked a Palestinian guerrilla base near Beirut on Sunday, killing three people and forcing the temporary closure of Beirut’s airport.

Israeli jet fighters swooped down on the town of Naame, 10 miles south of Beirut, attacking the hilltop guerrilla base of the radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command.

Commercial flights scheduled for arrival Sunday afternoon--the peak period of air traffic--were diverted to Cyprus and Syria.

Thick clouds of smoke rose from Naame’s hilltop as Israeli jets and helicopter gunships blasted the base. An Israeli warship was spotted off the town’s coast as another attack followed.

Sunday’s raid was the third attack on guerrilla bases in Lebanon this month. The previous attacks targeted bases of the Shiite Muslim group Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.

Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin threatened to strike at guerrillas attacking either Israeli forces or their ally the South Lebanon Army, or SLA. Rabin specifically mentioned Iranian-backed guerrillas, namely Hezbollah, and their Palestinian allies.

Last year, 44 SLA fighters were killed, and scores were injured. Israel lost 23 soldiers in guerrilla attacks in 1994.

Sources in the area say that defections from the SLA have increased since the escalation of guerrilla attacks. Israel, in response, has beefed up the active fronts in the area by replacing SLA fighters with Israeli soldiers. Hezbollah’s response has been to target these Israeli-manned posts.